397th Friday Blog Roundup

by Mel

The Wolvog’s team ultimately lost, but — come on — it was their first season, and they were number two in the division. That’s amazing. They went from Bad News Bears to a well-oiled machine. In the final game, the Wolvog had two times up at bat; two amazing hits. He had a forced out at home on the second hit, which was hard to take. But he pulled his shit together and went out and did some amazing fielding in the next inning. And that’s all that really mattered to me; did he try hard, did he shake off the disappointments, did he support his teammates. And yeah, the icing on the cake was that he got better skillwise during the season too.

A few weeks ago during one of the championship games, the Wolvog stormed out of the diamond when he was tagged out on first, crying as he threw himself into the dugout. And Josh took him through Tom Hank’s famous, “there’s no crying in baseball” speech from A League of Their Own. (And yes, in that moment, all the parents whipped out their cell phones and played it for the kids from YouTube. Ah… technology.) We borrowed the movie from the library, and they loved it. Hardcore. Thought it was one of the best movies they ever saw, and they’re trying to watch it for a second time before it has to go back. Though when that scene came up, the Wolvog rolled his eyes and buried his face in my pillow as if he couldn’t be bothered to watch the advice.

I love that movie so much. There are dozens of times when my throat starts closing up, either because I am so happy or so incredibly sad for the girls. My favourite line in the movie is when Dottie Hinson’s husband is back from the war, and she takes it as an opportunity to leave the team which has become too emotional and difficult a space. Jimmy Dugan, her manager, finds her slinking off and calls her on it.

Jimmy Dugan: Shit, Dottie, if you want to go back to Oregon and make a hundred babies, great, I’m in no position to tell anyone how to live. But sneaking out like this, quitting, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. Baseball is what gets inside you. It’s what lights you up, you can’t deny that.Dottie Hinson: It just got too hard.Jimmy Dugan: It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.

Oh my G-d, has there ever been a better line?

The point of this story comes back around to the forced out. The bases were loaded, and the Wolvog was on third. The boy at bat bunted, and the ball dropped directly in front of home plate. The catcher picked it up and stood on base as the Wolvog ran toward him. And halfway down the base line, facing the boy standing on the plate, I could see the idea click in the Wolvog’s head and he started to pick up steam. So he came barreling down to the base, and slid into home as violently as possible, kicking out his leg to bring the catcher down. The catcher dropped the ball, and the look of glee that passed over the Wolvog’s face as he got up — in those two seconds before the out was called — were priceless. He literally thought he had just reenacted the final scene between Kit and Dottie in A League of Their Own and got the run, not understanding the difference with a forced out.

Hence why the tears were so intense; because he had not only slid for nothing, but his movie moment hadn’t come true. Still, best moment ever to watch.

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Speaking of good movies, we’ve shown them E.T. as well and have Back to the Future (skipping the shooting of Doc) in the queue. We’ve done a bunch of cartoon ones like Snoopy. All of Star Wars. Ferris Bueller isn’t appropriate yet, right? Nor is War Games?

What other movies from the past — think late seventies to early nineties — would you add to our queue?

Updated: moving the movie suggestions from the comment section into the post so others can easily find them as well. Thank you so much for these because I had forgotten about most of them. Keep them coming!

Goonies

Space Camp

Flight of the Navigator

Princess Bride

Labyrinth

Karate Kid

Neverending Story

Land Before Time

Parent Trap

Field of Dreams

Big

Mrs. Doubtfire

Hook

The Sandlot

The Last Unicorn

An American Tale

The Man from Snowy River

Black Stallion

Incredible Journey

Ghost Dad

My Girl

The Secret Garden

Jumanji

Fly Away Home

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Short Circuit

Escape to Witch Mountain

Babe

Wall-E

Stuart Little

Charlotte’s Web

The Cat from Outer Space

The Rescuers

The Secret of NIMH

Flubber

The Muppet Movie

The Last Starfighter

Little Big League

Billy Elliot

The Journey of Natty Gan

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

The Mighty Ducks

D.A.R.Y.L.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (might be a bit too soon)

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Soul Surfer

Les Miserables (Clare Danes and Liam Neeson version)

The Blind Side

The Railway Children

Swallows and Amazons

Adventures in Babysitting

Pollyanna

The Sound of Music

Mary Poppins

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week as well as the week before. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

Tales of a Cautious Optimist has a particularly good piece of advice for dealing with infertility that stems from a Sex and the City episode. It’s about finding how you — in particular — reboot. She writes, “The list goes on and on, but the point is when you board the infertility train, disappointments, setbacks, and feelings of failure are inevitable… and the only way to survive is to Breathe and Reboot.” Go read the post in full.

A Half Baked Life asks a few really really interesting questions in her post about what bloggers owe each other in terms of the truth. She examines a blogger’s trial-by-other-bloggers (though… in a way… we would be the jury) in regards to her bankruptcy hearing. She explains: “And yet, we hold bloggers accountable to certain standards, don’t we? To standards that we don’t even use, perhaps, for celebrities, whose images are more obviously cultivated for public consumption? Just like we expect the Girl Scouts to act a certain way even when they’re not in uniform?” It’s a really thought-provoking post.

A Thousand Oceans has a post about the missing parts — both of a painting and the holes in her heart. It is a heartbreaking post about a portrait that goes unfinished after the birth and death of her twins. This thought was particularly gorgeous: “I really didn’t want to spend any time looking at the self-portrait, which I had not seen nor really thought about since I was pregnant with the twins. I could not, however, ignore the obvious irony of my own missing parts in the painting.” Sending love to A Thousand Oceans for the missing parts.

Lastly, Bébé Suisse has a post about what time means to her as they approach their unfulfilled due date not pregnant. It’s about the hard choices we have to make, the retrospect that comes afterward, and the decisions that still loom as we spin the dozens of plates in our lives, hoping none will topple off their sticks. She adds: “Life is not just about well-timed sex, as much as it can sometimes seem that way, and this is the moment for me to look beyond that part to the others that make up a well-rounded existence.” I think many will relate to this post.

The roundup to the Roundup: The hard is what makes it great. What movies should we show the twins? And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between June 8th and June 15th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.

“A League of Their Own” is one of those movies that I MUST WATCH if it’s on TV. I appreciate it more with time; I always sob now when Marla’s dad says goodbye to her. And Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell were clearly having a blast (and damn, that’s good swing dancing!).

I think “The Goonies” has held up extremely well over time. (The plot passes what I call the “remake with cell phone” test — reception would be indifferent at best in all those oceanside caves, and the adventure and sense of purpose drives the kids onward even when they have the opportunity to get out.) There are some frightening scenes, but I find it as exciting now as I did when I was 8 or 9 and sitting in the theater with a strip of smuggled-in candy buttons. : )

The Land Before Time is a good movie for that age. I also watched the original “The Parent Trap” about a million times when I was that age and, it has twins in it. I like the other suggestions from those before me, too.

I’m with Tiara – I was going to suggest Princess Bride if no one else had. Labyrinth is fabulous (and if you watch it with captions, you get to see my favorite line: Oh my aching sushi!), Neverending story should be good. I didn’t see a lot of movies as a kid, but those two stand out.

Just so you know, I rewatched Goonies with my sixth graders and I was horrified by the language. They use the word shit a million times. I guess PG ratings were easier to get in the 80’s. Just thought you might like a warning! Also, I would add Short Curcuit to that list. And The Last Unicorn.

But DEFINITELY Willy Wonka … with Ian, we watched Mary Poppins, Flubber, the Herbie movies (ok, so those really are pretty silly), Escape to Witch Mountain, Babe, Wall-E, Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, the Cat from Outer Space, the Rescuers … and the Secret of NIMH is on my list for when he’s a little older.

And thanks for the shout-out! I’ve really been enjoying the discussion on this one.

Honey I Shrunk the Kids
The Mighty Ducks
D.A.R.Y.L.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (might be a bit too soon)
What about Raiders of the Lost Ark? (Maybe cover their eyes during the face melting scene? Honestly it can’t be much worse than The Goonies).

Congratulations to Wolvog & team for their silver-place showing – especially awesome for a first season!

There was a summer in the late eighties when my sister and I watched Adventures in Babysitting like every day. I’m not recommending that kind of viewing schedule, but your kids might enjoy seeing it once.

Who is Mel?

Melissa, otherwise known as Mel, The Stirrup Queen, and most recently nicknamed Lollipop Goldstein, has been blogging since 2006. In addition to STIRRUP QUEENS, she also writes the daily Lost and Found (LFCA). She also writes for BlogHer. You can join her on StumbleUpon. She's known to Twitter about her wonky ovaries.